MY SPHERE OF INFLUENCE IS TURNING INTO A BLACK HOLE
Something I wrote around 2004. Wow, things are so different now. What a relief!======================
For the past two mornings, our team meetings in the office had turned into bull sessions about how decidedly flimsy our outgoing ex-pat director had been. First, we were put off by the news that salary increases dictated by the Merit Standard this year were only going to be at 7.0% maximum. Our hopes were up last year because management assured that with the revised Merit Standard, the chances of getting higher rates would improve.
We were crushed because last year the increase was 8.0%. Minimum.
We were crushed still, because this director did not even make recommendations to increase the rates, to haggle from HR “exemptions” to cover for invaluable effort by the department. Or atleast emphatize, commiserate with us. Or beat the drums to inspire us to do better this year. We had worked our asses off and bled our ears and numbed our hands to go the distance for those marketing plans. We had wanted some form of comfort. Anything but demotivation.
Second, there was going to be another round of marketing plan changes in the supposed-to-be final campaign turn-over meeting. The changes were brought about by the fickle-minded marketing director, who was suddenly nodding his head to a different tune, the tune of which he turned down months ago from us (staff specialists) and set a new direction based on his obtrusive gut feel.
“I told you so’s” were ringing in my ears about the decision. And the agony follows – the rework will take brain-racking number crunching over something that could have been made months ago, if only this director had seen the value of our mathematically based and carefully weighed opinions at the very start.
My co-staffers were just as frustrated, tut-tutting and tsk-tsking and heaving deep breaths because their lungs had suddenly constricted. Our manager, a company veteran of 17 years, was with us, sharing in the pain. “There’s nothing for us lesser mortals to do but to follow the gods,” he said.
“But the gods,” he added, “must be crazy.”
Terse laughter erupted from the staff. We knew what he meant.
Deep inside I was guessing, when the director knew he was going down, he probably wanted the whole marketing department to go down with him.
===================
Flashforward 2007:
The director got the boot (but the boot was a golden one). I got promoted, and I have my own share of management-related problems, and that's because I'm a manager now. The market's performance since last year was something short of a miracle -- we've got nice fat bonuses and are just waiting for this year's (which is rumored to be heftier). Team Morale is still an issue, but it doesn't involve me anymore (my team's probably the most motivated team on the floor).
What a difference three years made.
posted by Elyss @ 10:22 PM
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